On Sunday, May 22, 4-H members and volunteers from the Herkimer County 4-H program came together to create raised garden beds and to plant flower beds and containers, at the Utica Zoo. The raised vegetable gardens are located near the Sea lion exhibit and will have herbs and vegetables for the zoo residents to consume.
The raised beds were placed in their new location, leveled with stone, and filled with compost soil made right at the zoo. 4-H members and volunteers planted the raised beds with sunflowers, catnip, lettuce, kale, and sweet potatoes.
At the same time, flowers under the welcome sign and many containers throughout the zoo were also planted with new annuals. 4-H members and volunteers weeded around the welcome signs at the entrance of the zoo and prepared the beds for new flowers.
Some old bushes were trimmed back and old roots removed to get the areas ready for planting.
4-H members cleaned out the previous year’s vegetation and filled containers with new flowers for this year’s growing season. There were enough flowers to fill 10 container planters along the many paths within the zoo.
Herkimer County 4-H will be providing volunteers to maintain these gardens for the summer months along with zoo staff, right up to the fall harvest. Many 4-H families and volunteers will be coming in weekly to weed and water the new garden beds. Zoo staff will be helping 4-H members harvest the garden produce throughout the summer month to feed to the many zoo animals.
4-H members and volunteers who participated included: Virginia and Paula Culver; Wendy and David Richardson; Kristy Downes; Jenn, Ellie and Natalie Collins; Karen Vosler; Kaylin, Aubree and William Keiffer.
For more information on this and other programs offered by 4-H, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension of Herkimer County at (315) 866-7920.